More User Reviews:

Poured into a nonic a full rich brown with a nice formed 1/2 finger creamy-like off white head.Good balance in the nose not overly smoky,smoke infused with some sweet caramel and cherry-like fruitiness with a touch of iron.A mix of caramel and tofee sweetness hits up front with some of that cherry-like fruitiness,the smoke comes in the finish and compliments the sweetish flavors instead of overpowering them.A very nice smoked ale here,alot of nice flavor components.I could see myself drinking this on a cold day next to a roaring fire no doubt.

Lots of peat and smoke in the aroma. Thin palette, some malt on the finish. Dark brown with no head. Pretty smooth. A good fireside sipper, almost tastes like it's barrel-aged, but it isn't. Good contextually, I'd like to sit by the fire and enjoy some of these.

This beer was a dark amber color with a fairly thick head and a bit of lacing. Aroma was mainly caramel malt, couldn't really smell any smoke. However, the smoke came through in the taste, as well as the caramel and a bit of hops. Nice beer, good for a change of pace, but I wouldn't want to drink a lot of them in one sitting.

12 ounces w/o freshness info to be had. On the darker side, under a rich khaki head that stays and leaves plenty of stranduli of lace. Mild smoke and toast on the nose. Plenty of dark malts, again moderate smoke, and drying hops. Thick feeling on the tongue, I suppose thats whats called "full bodied". I'm drinking this on a July nite and this one says loud and clear "winter time beer" anyway, enjoyable and quality offering, night capper of a beer or would pair well with rich foods. Not crazy about the style, so doubt I'd go for this one again.

Pours a two finger light brown head, fairly creamy with mostly small bubbles. Body is medium brown clear body. Smells mostly of sweet medium toasted crystal malts, like an extra malty brown ale or even a dark Belgian, a touch of alcohol. If I did't know it I wouldn't have said it had a touch of smoke in it, I would have confused it for dark crystal malts. Tastes very Carmely and malty, nutty, some earthy hops, the smoke is somewhat noticeable and goes quite well with the brown and Carmel malts. Medium thin bodied, medium high carbing if which I'd like a bit less. There is a fair amount of earthy ashy lingering bitterness. Overall not bad but not great. I bought a four pack and don't plan on buying this again in the near future but maybe later on. $8.69 a four pack. This is a good entry beer into the smoked beer world.

Drinkability: This is one of my favorites from the brewery. Very sweet for the style but the smoked malt is there throughout the beer. I could not do more than two in a sitting, but would like to do one often. One of the better American smoked beers.

Sampled a recent tasting. I believe the beer was provided by thirdeye11.

The beer pours a clear brown color with a tan head. The aroma is alcohol, malt, toffee, dark fruit and a little smoke. The flavor is leather, tobacco and a hint of smoke. I didn't realize this was a smoked beer when trying it as the smoke was not near as prevalent as in most other smoked beers. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Appearance: Medium brown that looks more mahogany in the light. Thin off-white head and almost no lacing.

Smell: English hops, cherry and other dark fruits. Fairly mild and only notice a hint of smoke.

Taste: Malt driven, with caramel, cherry, and dark fruits. There is a light layer of smokiness enveloping everything, but this is certainly more malty and sweet than smoky. Finishes with some light bitterness from the spicy English hops.

Feel: Moderate carbonation, medium body, semi-dry finish.

Overall: Mostly comes across as a mild dark English Ale. Needs more body, more smoke, more complexity, more something.

Appears a deep crimson blood burgundy deep brown with ruby higlights forms a large light khaki off white head hat billows up with a vigorous pour fine even lacing disperses as it dwindles down. Aromatics offer up a Christmas tree like pine note or at the very least like a new box of cigars with cedar inserts. Sweet and smokey I like it much like a well made barbeque sauce, doesn't just hit you with liquid smoke. Flavor has a touch of the smokey peated malt character with a mild tobacco leaf herbal note as well, not quite smoked meat levels but a hit all around for the subtle interplay of smoked malts, standard malts, and hops. Herbal hops and ashtrays oh joy! I kid, I kid, really it's a wonderful mix of flavors. Alchohol is well hidden and felt like the a smokey twist of meat and malts. Touch of chocolate and bland powdered sugar combine to form that incredible brw. Moutfheel is fulller boded but ehat a compelx style offered u on cask at the Faheads', nice spicy herbal and cedar prodcutions. Welcome home big mamam let's rent a couch and crash.

By iteself, this beer might have been only OK. But I had it with some blue cheese hamburgers made on a charcoal grill, and the combination was great. The beer has a caramel maltiness, with some lingering smokiness on the tail end, that really enhanced the flavor of the food. Not a very complex beer, but really good with grilled food.

A "no duh" note: make sure to let this beer warm up a little from refrigerator temperature, because at it's coldest it had really no flavor or smell going for it.

A- The dense brown body has a slight hazy to it with a reddish hint that glows in the light. There is a thick light tan head that last for a good bit.

S- The aroma is very clean but with lots of sniffing the notes of dry toffee and malt come through with a soft herbal hop note in the finish. I don't get any smoke at all, and I actually check the bottle to see if this was really a smoke beer.

T- The soft woody brown malt flavor had some soft dry caramel malt hints and a nougat melanoidin quality, perhaps smoke? The finish has a light tartness with some pine hops that snap just a bit. As the beer warms there is a faint smoke note that lingers after each sip.

M- This beer has a medium-full mouthfeel with no alcohol heat noticed.

O- This is a nice brown ale but not a lot of depth and I couldn't find much smoke at all. The strongest flavor was the nougat quality.

A--Deep burnt caramel, almost chestnut shell body. If this beer were a crayola it would be burnt sienna. Head is one finger of thick white cream that retains to a skim and laces. Good looking beer.

S--A touch of smoke and bacon. But then there's like a brown sugar or munich malt toffeish hint. The smoke is present but not overwhelming--definitely not crowding out the aromas of unsmoked malt.

T--Very similar to the nose, almost an exact replica, in fact. More bacon and hickory smoke, with a hint of maybe sausage, up front. But it's not the whole profile, as the middle is like a light scottish ale--has that sweet syrupy maltiness that, again is brushed aside before it gets tiring on your tongue. Because there's healthy hop bitterness on the finish, which melds beautifully with the smoke to concoct this awesome bitter chocolate and cigar wrapper ending. Definitely an American recipe. I dig it.

Poured into a pint glass. Nice dark amber / mahogany body with 2 fingers of light tan head that hangs around for a while leaving lots of lacing.

Interesting nose - caramel malts and dark fruits, but not much (if any) smokiness. Certainly pick up some of the smoke on the tongue, as well as some roasted malts. Although this ale smelled fairly sweet, im really struggling to find it in the taste, which is puzzling. Medium bodied and light on the carbonation.

I really enjoy cooking with smoked beers, especially in marinades...although I dont see myself buying this one for consumption again, maybe it will make its way into a rib or steak recipe down the road.

Pours a very dark mahogany with a large tan foamy head. Nice head that leaves good lacing. The smell is strong with dark fruit,prunes,raisons,smokiness,and brown sugar. The taste is like the smell full of dark fruit,smoke,bread yeast,brown sugar,and molasses. The m/f is medium with all the flavors mixing well. A very good beer,although I'm not a huge fan of smoke beers,this is very good.

Smell: Some smoke, some malt, some fruit esters. Not a lot of complexity, but it's balanced.

Taste: Same thing here: a bit of smoke, a bit of dark fruit, some citrus, and a lingering bitter kick with the smoke and fruit esters.

Mouthfeel: Not as thick as I thought it would be, and almost lighter-bodied, or light to medium-bodied. Decent carbonation, but everything could be better.

Drinkability: As a huge Weyerbacher fan already coming in, this one doesn't impress me as much as others. That said, for winter, and for a flavorful brew that you should check out, this is one of them. Tastier than my review, overall, probably admits, but I have to do it stride by stride, and that's what goes on.

Had a tasting of this at City Beverage in Winston-Salem Saturday, and I was sold. From just a couple sips, it struck me as a smoked beer that let the rest of the beer out to breathe, instead of smothering it all, the way I feel most smoked beers do. Bought a four pack, and I'm throwing one into a nice big glass about now.

This looks very nice, with a head of lightly tanned off-white sitting firm and creamy on top of a brown-meets-dark ruby color. Dibs and dabs of lace dot the glass. Entrancing, and a bit like a Belgian dubble in color maybe.

Aroma gives off waves of dark sweet fruits (fig, plum, raisin), carob, and toffee...the smoke lays down a bed underneath and let's the other stuff sing. Subtly. This is a very nice smelling beer, and the smoke does not overtake the other aspects of the aroma.

As with the aroma, smoke does not totally prevail in the flavor. The taste is similar to the smell--succulent dark fruits, carob, toffee--along with the essence of fresh sweet cream, earthy hops, nut husk and, yes, the smoke. And I love that the smoke merely highlights the other aspects of the beer, which is a malt-lovers kind of thing. If it weren't smoked this would probably fall somewhere between a big American brown and a strong Belgian ale. Slight mineral in the finish, along with grill-char, toffee and currant.

Probably a little thin for the flavors, and maybe even too prickly on the carbonation side. But it's got a nice slickness and a little bit of stick, and goes down well enough, but something just slightly beefier would have done the trick.

My problem with smoked beers, if I haven't already said so a million different ways, is that they are one-dimensional. Fireside Ale is not, and that's probably why it's my favorite smoked beer by a mile. Glad I discovered this, and this points to the power of beer tastings--I never would have picked it up otherwise.

Burnt, but clear, cherrywood color with a low, durable rise of grayish tan suds. There are some underlying brown sugar and hard toffee sweet nuances on the nose, but it primarily about the smoked wood and pork fat.The sweetness ekes out a slightly larger foothold in the mouth. Brown sugar is foremost, but toffee, and cooked apples, and cotton candy, and Concord grapes all make their respective appearances. Now it's time for smoke. It comes through drier and woodier here in the mouth (or, in other words, there's not as much barbecued pork). In the relative absence of tangible hopping, this smoky dryness provides the necessary balance, and an aftertaste of burnt cedar.It's pushing full-bodied, with a slow, trickling carbonation. Yet it doesn't drink particularly big. It's no sessioner, but it'd be quite easy to go through a few of these with some like-minded cuisine. It's not that hard to go through that many in absence of any food either.All in all good stuff. The smoke stands up and sits down as necessary. Don't come here looking for "extreme" aside from the rareness of smoked beers. This has far more finesse than I expected.